After the “Hello, Garci” wiretaps were leaked to the media in 2005, Soliman and nine other GMA appointees—the so-called Hyatt 10—resigned and urged their erstwhile political patron to step down too.… The probes into the election cheating and other irregularities that took place during the GMA administration must continue. However, shouldn’t they cover all those who benefited from her presidency, including those who now are either allied with or part of the current administration?
By: Dan Mariano
Thanks to the relentless bid of Sen. Panfilo “Ping” Lacson to get back at Pampanga Rep. Gloria M. Arroyo and lawyer Jose Miguel Arroyo, evidence of massive fraud during the 2004 general elections allegedly committed by the then-president and her husband continue to surface.
Not a few observers, however, are concerned that Lacson and other senators allied to President Benigno Aquino 3rd are creating just a partial picture of election fraud by focusing on a limited set of GMA confederates. Election fraud so massive could only have been possible with the collaboration of numerous allies.
Even without a judicial judgment or congressional finding, the accusations of massive fraud that marred the polls seven years ago are widely accepted. In fact, weeks after the voting that handed Mrs. Aquino the mandate she had so desperately sought since she was catapulted to the presidency in 2001, election watchdogs were already offering proof of cheating.
Information technology expert Robert Verzola, for one, gave a detailed analysis of where the fraud in behalf of Mrs. Arroyo took place—and even by how much. In a study published in November 2004, Verzola combed through what he called the true results of the presidential race using the tally of the watchdog National Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel).
Verzola, an official Namfrel observer, said his study matched the information overheard from the wiretapped telephone conversations between Mrs. Arroyo and Virgilio Garcillano, then an official of the Commission on Elections. Mentioned in the “Hello, Garci” wiretaps were several provinces, mostly in Mindanao, where GMA’s strongest rival Fernando Poe Jr. (FPJ) won the voting; in those provinces too Verzola noted discrepancies in the final official tally, which gave Mrs. Arroyo a huge victory.
Verzola said that cheating occurred after the votes had already been counted at the precincts, which produced over 216,000 election returns (ERs). He added that the vote count recorded on those ERs were not faithfully reflected on the 177 certificates of canvass (CoCs), which became the basis for the bicameral congressional count held at the Batasan Pambansa, where Mrs. Arroyo was proclaimed winner.
Verzola pinpointed Basilan, Sultan Kudarat, Lanao del Sur and Sulu where he detected “reversal of leads,” adding that 41 to 75 percent differences were rigged in GMA’s favor. Other provinces where election outcomes were similarly tampered included Tawi-Tawi, Maguindanao, Lanao del Norte, Saranggani, Romblon and Zambales.
“There were about five million votes that were not properly tallied, four million in pro-FPJ areas and only one million in GMA areas,” he said.
In Metro Manila, Verzola said, FPJ’s lead was understated by some one million votes.
The massive poll fraud that misrepresented the will of the people in 2004, along with the lopsided campaign that preceded the election, was made possible with the participation of Mrs. Arroyo’s allies and underlings—a number of whom now hold key positions in the current administration.
From 2001 to 2005, Corazon “Dinky” Soliman served as secretary of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) under Mrs. Arroyo. After the “Hello, Garci” wiretaps were leaked to the media in 2005, Soliman and nine other GMA appointees—the so-called Hyatt 10—resigned and urged their erstwhile political patron to step down too.
During a so-called “people’s court” held months later at the University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City, Soliman gave “testimony” that the entire GMA cabinet and state resources were mobilized to boost Mrs. Arroyo’s election chances—in violation of, at the very least, anti-electioneering laws.
According to media reports on the UP “trial,” Soliman regretted her role in GMA’s election blitz, which included the distribution of Philhealth cards that bore Mrs. Arroyo’s picture and the slogan, “GMA para sa Masa, para sa Lahat” during the campaign period. The cards, valued at P1,600 each to cover medical assistance to indigent families, were handed out in poor communities where surveys showed FPJ had strong support, she reportedly said.
Following Mr. Aquino’s victory in last year’s presidential contest, Soliman managed to return to her old DSWD post.
The illegal use of state resources to boost GMA’s candidacy and the actual vote-buying and tampering of ERs and COCs had robbed FPJ of victory in the 2004 polls. But they are not the only factors that led to the loss of the late “King of Philippine Movies,” many of Poe’s followers still believe.
Analyses of the 2004 general elections showed that it was “one of the most emotional in the country’s history since the 1986 elections that resulted in the exile of Ferdinand Marcos.” Voters had become polarized between followers of deposed president Joseph Estrada who supported FPJ and those who favored GMA.
The then-opposition, however, saw its ranks shattered by the insistence of Lacson, Estrada’s former top cop, to also run for president—along with other, much weaker contenders that included another senator, Raul Roco, and evangelist Eddie Villanueva.
The official results of the presidential race showed GMA getting about 12.9 million votes; FPJ 11.7 million; Lacson 3.5 million; Roco 2.08 million; and Villanueva 1.9 million. To this day, FPJ die-hards believe that if only Lacson had agreed to put his presidential ambitions on hold, and had backed FPJ in 2004, no amount of cheating would have made Mrs. Arroyo win.
Other politicians now identified with the P-Noy administration have also been accused of allowing GMA to keep the presidency in 2004 under highly questionable circumstances.
On May 28, 2005, for instance, both chambers of Congress agreed on the rules for the bicameral canvass of votes cast for president and vice-president. A joint committee was created to act as the National Board of Canvassers (NBC), consisting of 11 senators and 11 congressmen as announced by then-Senate President Franklin Drilon Jr. and then-Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr.
According to at least one published account, the composition of the NBC was immediately lambasted by the then-opposition, which pointed out that the House portion of the committee consisted of nine pro-administration congressmen and two from the opposition.
The FPJ partisans sought “more equal representation for all the involved political parties in the committee.” However, they were thumbed down by Drilon and de Venecia—both of whom would later break with GMA.
Attempts by the opposition to question the CoCs were similarly dismissed by the NBC, which pro-GMA lawmakers dominated, with a patronizing “noted.”
Mrs. Arroyo had been president for nine long years that few of the officials and politicians who now denounce her were not “tainted” by association with her in one way or another.
Certainly, the probes into the election cheating and other irregularities that took place during the GMA administration must continue. However, shouldn’t they cover all those who benefited from her presidency, including those who now are either allied with or part of the current administration?
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